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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837165">everybody cares (and wears the sheep's clothes while they chaperone)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/constanted/pseuds/constanted'>constanted</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But only a little, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Platonic Relationships, c2e96, heart to heart, mentioned beaujes and fjorclay, sibling feelings!, unfortunate alcohol-cupcake flavor pairings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:46:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/constanted/pseuds/constanted</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"And I'm not even close to the person that you met in that graveyard, anymore."</p><p>"Not at all," Beau nods.</p><p>"You're not close to the person I met there, either."</p><p>(or: cupcakes, conversation, and crush confessions.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Caduceus Clay &amp; Beauregard Lionett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>201</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>everybody cares (and wears the sheep's clothes while they chaperone)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>BEAU AND CAD PROCESS YOUR FEELINGS HEALTHILY 2020</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"The, uh. The kid seems sweet," Beau starts. They're in the Chateau, Jester with her mother, Fjord and Yasha passed out, Nott and Caleb working on something magical in their room, and the two of them are just sort of stalling. "Your sister. The--the tiny one, not the hot one."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I thought she'd be taller than me," he smiles, with a little hint of bitterness that he doesn't like very much slipping into it. "It's--I mean. I guess it would've been weird if I saw her again and she was just suddenly an adult, but. iI's just--it's weird. They're all--they're all exactly the same. And I'm not even close to the person that you met in that graveyard, anymore."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"Not at all," Beau nods.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"You're not close to the person I met there, either."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She hums. Doubtful. He tries to make eye contact.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"I'm so afraid of this being the only real story I’ll ever have," he admits. Because it's true, and he knows she feels the same. "I've never had anything like this. I never thought I'd have anything like this. I didn't think I was <em>supposed</em> to have anything like this."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"Look at us," she says. Takes a swig from Nott's flask, which Yasha must have handed over for the time being--smart. "Disappointing our fuckin' parents."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He snorts. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s fair.” And she looks at him oddly, now. She didn’t expect him to agree; she’s trying to provoke him.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"Want some?"</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"You have any fruit? I don't really wanna trip, but I need to--taste. Y'know."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"I got a cupcake?"</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"That'll do." He takes a bite--black moss--and then a swig--he thinks it's whiskey?--and he exhales. "Still tastes bad." He repeats the sequence.“Younger siblings are weird.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You the oldest?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Nah. Cal—you said she was the hot one?—is older than me, and Colton, the asshole, is the oldest. And Bell was, um. Kind of a surprise?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I mean, not that much of a surprise. Because.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah. <em>Super</em> small house. You’ve been there.” He grimaces. Beau grimaces back. “In. Um. Back to the point. You’d never met, uh, TJ before this week, right?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“No,” she says. Bristles. “I assumed they hadn’t even told him about me. He’s too young to need lessons about bad examples.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You’re not a bad example.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Fuck <em>off</em>, dude. You—fuckin’ saved your family, everybody loves you, it’s all back—“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You’re not a bad example, Beau.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">She gives a look. “I fucked with a holy site last night. One of <em>your</em> holy sites.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Mhm. And I’m a little pissed about that. But. I don’t understand <em>anything</em> about libraries, so. We’re even.” He takes another bite, another swig. She takes a swig as well, and pulls out a different cupcake. Blueberry. He recognizes the frosting, because it has little sprinkles on it, and Jester had fed those to Sprinkle that night in the volcano and made a genuinely very funny cannibalism joke. “Your brother’s going to think you’re incredible. He doesn’t have a—I mean. There’s not much about you that’s not <em>cool</em>, at least.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You and your brother don’t get along.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Yeah? He’s—this isn’t a good counterexample. Because he’s not cool. You’re, objectively, you,” he mimes punching, “You’re extremely cool. Fisticuffs and books. That’s two things I’m <em>extremely </em>bad with. I think you’re great. I think that your parents have no idea who you are; I think that parents like to—like to make you into something, decide who you are, and then you’re that forever. But that’s not—that’s not how we work.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">There’s silence, for a moment. A quiet “Thanks, Caduceus.” More silence. Nothing needs to be said, not really. “What do they think you are?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“<em>Your</em> parents think I’m a seven foot-tall fey monster, I assume."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You know what I mean.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He sighs. She stares. He goes for another cupcake-whiskey combo. “They told me earlier, actually. In pretty clear terms. And they—kind of apologized. Not really. They tried. But they mean well. But—I’m supposed to be the, uh. The steady one. Reliable. I was—I liked to mess around with the others, but I was supposed to, y’know. Stay home, make sure everything was safe. And comfort the others, after our parents left, and—help the mourning, ‘cuz I’m alright at talking when I’m not. You know. Panicking.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Wait, okay, diversion, why the <em>fuck </em>were you covered in water last night?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Fluting incident. I was sneaky and I scared the shit out of Cal, she fell into the water and then she pushed me in. Which is understandable because she is. Significantly stronger than myself. Physically. She’s—like Fjord. A paladin. And I realized that I could’ve faked drowning, after, but, uh.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You <em>snuck up</em> on someone?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I think the Wildmother was maybe feeling a little bit apologetic.” And he smiles. “I think she’s the only one who’s going to—apologize in the way I’d like to be apologized to. But I can’t blame anyone—“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Well. You kinda just gave me a reason to blame your parents.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“They—they really, really mean well. I don’t think they’re—I think they were a bit disappointed that I’m not staying with them. But they’re not like your dad; they’re not going to—to try and take credit for the person I am now. They know that’s not entirely correct.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beau looks at him. Eyes scouting for <em>something</em>, he’s familiar with the look because he sees it in mirrors, too. “Do you like being—that person?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I like being useful.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“That—that. Okay. You sound like fucking <em>Caleb</em>. It’s not about <em>use</em>.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Says <em>you</em>.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“There. There’s sarcasm. Okay, okay, cool. You—you don’t have to be fuckin’—reliable sage around us.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He blinks. “You don’t have to be afraid of us.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’m not afraid.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">He tilts his head. “I don’t have another self to be.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Beau mirrors him. “Make one.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Stop pushing us away.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Says <em>you</em>, this time. Also, I heard your mom saying that Fjord was <em>a good paladin boy</em> in Elvish, so—“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“If you push us away, you’ll never get an answer on whether or not I agree with her—“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Do you?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Promise to try and let us help you?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“If you do, too. I’m into Jester. Eye for an eye.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Here’s an eye, then.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“So—“</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I’ll kill you if you say a word. I swear.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"This is bonding. This is friendship. I can give <em>you</em> advice now. Set you up on little dates and shit--"</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"I can just let Jester heal you, then; you'd be <em>so </em>into that, though, so..."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"You know, he's into redheads who share a patron with him; I think you count as a redhead?"</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">"I will <em>fucking </em>kill you."</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“<em>Who</em> will my brother look up to?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I don’t look up to either of my older siblings. He can manage. But. Well. Bell’ll be mad at me. She said you looked very cool. So. I won’t kill you.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I won’t kill you, either.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">And they each grab another cupcake.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>BEAU AND CAD PROCESS YOUR FEELINGS HEALTHILY 2020 <i>PLEASE</i></p><p>comment kudo etc</p></blockquote></div></div>
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